Established in the 1980’s and based in the great border city of Carlisle, we are one of the largest independent bike stores in the UK stocking some of the sport’s biggest and most innovative brands both online and from our retail store. With industry-leading bikes from the likes of Specialized and Cannondale plus clothing and accessories from ORTLIEB, ASSOS, Sportful, Five Ten, FOX, Brooks and Castelli to name but a few with many more available.

Your Account

Your Basket (0)

Introducing the 2019 Specialized Turbo Levo

Words by scotbAdmin

on 27/09/2018 10:45:34

Back in 2016, Specialized revolutionised the concept of the e-mountain bike following years of development by the boffins at their trail riding facility over in Switzerland – a bike designed from the first drawing to be an e-mountain bike rather than just a mountain bike with a pedal assist motor and a hulking battery affixed to it in some after thoughted manor as so often was the case before then. The Turbo Levo looked great, was remarkably customizable through an app interface and performed as good, if not better, as any traditional mountain bike.

Since 2016 however, Specialized has spent three years redeveloping their Stumpjumper range with new frameset designs for a lighter, nimbler and ultimately more ridable all-mountain bike you’ll ever experience.

So, as of 2018 Specialized have two category-leading designs, the v2 spec Turbo Levo e-mountain bike and the new Stumpjumper – but rather than resting on their laurels Specialized have taken what they learned over the past couple of years developing the Stumpjumper and applied it to the creation of a new Turbo Levo chassis design maintaining the Stumpjumper’s mind-blowing rideability and performance yet conscious of the obvious challenges of an e-mountain bike which as motor and battery housing with optimized weight distribution.

Weight Saving

Speaking of weight, this new chassis design is up to 2 kilos (that’s 4.4 lbs) lighter than the design used for the 2016-2018 Turbo Levo models and the alloy version is lighter than the full-carbon S-Works spec Turbo Levo design from 2018 which surely raised a few eyebrows in the marketing department.

Motor Design

The new Turbo Levo hasn’t just been placed on a diet, it’s been working out too with a new v2.1 motor design which directly mounts to the frame and its housing is now made entirely from magnesium (the material of choice for DMR when making their lighter pedals) and is 15% smaller all in all saves a further 800g on top of the frames weight savings. This new v2.1 design is also more powerful and efficient; this new motor design can amplify rider input by 410 providing up to 560 watts and 90 Nm of torque.

It is worth noting however that this new motor was developed in partnership with the German drivetrain engineering specialist Brose, it’s similar to their S-MAG model which will appear on other e-mountain bikes other than those made by Specialized however what differentiates Specialized’s setup is the software used to control the motor and that is what makes the world of difference in how the motor behaves and applies power in relation to the rider's inputs but also the personalised settings via the Mission Control App.

Mission Control

In the previous versions of the Turbo Levo the computer which controlled the motor output was uniquely housed within the battery – for the 2019 Turbo Levo, this TCU (Turbo Control Unit) has been moved to the centre of the top tube where it can always be seen – this also displayed basic data such as an overview on your battery level, the motor-assist level you’re pedalling with and the ability to on the fly change modes and it also turns your bike on or off.

The TCU also connects to their Mission Control App via Bluetooth® or ANT+ including any third-party ANT+ devices. And finally, the TCU can also connect you to their new Turbo Connect Display (TCD) handlebar display, providing all live ride and bike data at a glance from your handlebars.

Battery Range

The new range will come with either 700 or 500-watt battery configurations which thanks in part to the efficiencies of the new motor and chassis design will deliver up to 40% improved range. This should deliver between 1 and 5 hours of battery life and we know, you’re reading that and thinking “whoa, that’s a bit vague” and you’d be right – the list of variables which affect the battery range is longer than a lot of countries constitutions - amendments and all.

The nuts and bolts of it are that it depends on how you ride, where you’re riding, and the battery charge state is the biggest aspects to consider. For instance, let’s say that you’re using the maximum amount of pedal-assist on the steepest possible trail - that kind of motor support will draw more heavily on the battery’s cells than a medium amount of pedal assistance on rolling terrain and that, in turn, will give you more hours of riding from a single charge.

The new Turbo Levo software also includes their Smart Control feature, this eliminates the risk of you ever running out of power in the middle of a ride. Smart Control allows you to set the distance you’d like to ride, and the system will deliver power output when you need it and conserve power when it thinks you can get on just fine without much assistance.

Summary

Well done if you got this far down, as you can probably gauge the 2019 Turbo Levo is going to be another revolutionary force in the e-mountain bike category and we cannot wait to get our hand on one.

We’ve summarised the improvements in this post but there is so much more to go into which we’ll expand upon within the product descriptions as they come up on to our site as some features are limited to specific models.

Preview Video

Availability and Pricing

We’re awaiting confirmed delivery dates for the first 2019 Turbo Levo models in store – right now we’re looking at most models becoming available between January and April 2019, once we have confirmed dates we’ll be adding the models to our site for pre-ordering.